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Abstract

The purpose of this work is to systematically assess the consequences of a potential radiological attack on processed food in a production facility. Infant milk formula (IMF) is specifically chosen as the case of investigation. Three different radionuclides, 90Sr, 137Cs and 241Am, are chosen as sources of contamination for the assessment. The assessment of the consequences of an attack is limited to negative health effects, i.e. mortality or morbidity. It is found that a considerably large number of infants would potentially receive negative health effects due to ingestion of radionuclides in the contaminated IMF (depending on the activity used at the time of contamination, as well as the contamination scenario). However, in the case of contamination at mortality and morbidity level, the radioactivity from contaminated IMF is calculated to be detectable during its production phase. This is achieved using a NaI(Tl) detector on the outside of an IMF packaging (a can) during the production. In the case of contamination at permissible level, the detector would only alarm the abnormality for the 137Cs source. This investigation has also found that radioactive sources that are easily accessible to the general public are possible to use in such scenarios with some effect. This finding further encourages the related industries to practice preparedness against the possibility of contamination events using radioactive materials.